Trip Report **COMPLETED** A Grand Christmas Trip (in November!)

Hey all! We have been back for about a week now so I will slowly work on my Trip Report :) Not sure if anyone even knew I went on this trip aside from people who follow me on IG and snapchat :joyfull:

Who?
Who else...my Mom (Mary) and I (Megan)
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When?
November 16-19

Where?
The Grand Floridian :) First time stay for us....and won't be the last! We fell in love! :inlove:
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Why?
We wanted to see the Christmas decorations...and well, why not?

T-1 Day November 15, 2017
We had a very early morning flight so instead of making my Dad get up early to drive us we planned on staying at a hotel across the street from the airport the night before. For some reason this plan continued to morph and we decided we should eat at the Cracker Barrel before going to the hotel. I have no idea why but it felt like a thing people do before Disney trips and we had never been before so why not?
So, after a busy day at work I headed to my parents house and we packed up the car and drove off to dinner.
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My Mom and I both got the Southern Chicken biscuits
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We both got Mac and Cheese and she got fries while I got hashbrown casserole (which had a bit too much onion for my taste).
My Dad got the chicken fried chicken (with mashed potatoes and hashbrown casserole) just because it seemed like a thing people eat in the South/at Cracker Barrel. I don't know...we are very Northern :)
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Yum!!! I have no idea why it took us so long to eat at Cracker Barrel but we really enjoyed it! It was way too much food though, my Mom and I should have shared. My Dad ate the rest of it over 2 meals the next day :joyfull:
Is it a visit to Cracker Barrel without a rocking chair picture?
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Anyway, after dinner my Dad drove us to the hotel and dropped us off. The worker was like "where are you visiting from?!" and we sheepishly said we were from here and just staying over for an early flight :p
We dropped our stuff off in our room and headed to the bar for a drink but it was full of business men who were sitting every other seat and we didn't feel like asking someone to move over or having to make awkward/polite small talk so we went back to the room. :p I talk to people all day long...sometimes I just don't want to talk anymore!
This is the only picture I have of the room because I thought it was funny that the phone was extra old :)
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We watched some TV then went off to bed early.....only we didn't. We were on the first floor and could hear everything outside including cars parking, backing up beeping, etc etc. :banghead:

Day 1 November 16, 2017
After a very eventful night of minimal sleep we both got up around 3:30 to get ready. We have an early flight coming up in a few months and we, after some discussion, decided it was not worth staying at the hotel the night before again. Too hard to sleep. If I am going to have to get up early I would rather it be from my own bed (because yes I still have a bed at my parents house...because I'm the baby child aka the most important :joyfull:) :hilarious:
I know you guys think these pictures are weird but its our tradition!
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Next up: flight time
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
AWESOME!!!! That had to very cool. And you guys won too!

Woohoo! Bills still have like a 50% chance of making it to the playoffs...haha like it will ever happen

The question is, did you stay until the end of the game?? (...and what a finish BTW!!!)

We did not...sadly...but also not sadly because it took us over an hour to get home and we live 10 minutes from there :joyfull:
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
LOVE the Bills game pictures, my step sister went and froze her butt off :hilarious:

For some odd reason we actually weren't that cold until right before we left!

Wow that snow is crazy!!! That football game was even on the news here in Australia!!! and we are in the middle of 95 degree days heat wave at the moment :hilarious:

It was?! hahaha thats so funny!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
OK ! I'm back!
Day 2 November 17, 2017
We woke up around 7 am thanks to baby "George" in the room next to us crying. If you have not read my other TRs we tend to refer to any crying baby as George based on a very loud DME ride we once had :joyfull:. Nevertheless it was a very restful sleep for us...those Grand Floridian beds are incredibly comfy!
After getting ready we headed to Gasparilla for breakfast. Its very nice and big in there...not as chaotic as some of the other quick services can be.
My Mom got waffles
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And I got eggs, bacon, and tater tots. I really could have just gotten a side of tater tots because thats all I ate :joyfull: The food was good just not heat hot.
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After eating we headed to the lobby so we could catch the monorail. But....first a million pictures :p
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There was no one around the Gingerbread House so we took the opportunity to take plenty of pictures.
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The details are incredible!
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Next up: a few more Gingerbread pictures!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
The window details are my favorite part I think!
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Eventually we did make our way up to the monorail so we could head to Epcot :)
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I see you Spaceship Earth!
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We decided to Rope Drop Frozen so headed over there first.
Hello tree!
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Mexican decorations :)
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Frozen ended up being closed so we walked back towards Future World and stopped to take some actual tree pictures
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Some more decorations:)
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Next up: more randomness
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
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We wandered around Mouse Gear for a bit as I was on the hunt for Rose Gold ears and my Mom was looking for something for my nephew. I didn't find the ears but we did find some cute things for my nephew!
After shopping it was time for our first FP! I guess I don't have any pictures but it was Soarin' :)
Side story: My Sister called while we were in line to tell me that Guest Services originally emailed her and told her they couldn't help her with the Christmas dress (that we looked for the night before at DS) but then sent her another email with a link to it online ! She couldnt decide which size to get so she got 2...and I reaped the benefits because I got the second dress in the end. Here is a picture of us in matching dresses :joyfull:
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We were so thankful to Disney for helping her out! She was dying for that dress for her Rehearsal Dinner since they fist announced the dress almost a year ago!
Anyway, next FP was for Living with the Land
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After Living with the Land we went on Spaceship Earth...I have no pictures of that either :jawdrop: Who know what I was doing this morning :joyfull:
After SE we had some time before our last FP so we sat in the sun and relaxed a bit
Crazy Hair don't care
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Typical picture of me with my camera :)
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At some point we separated because my Mom wanted to sit more in the sun ... it looked like we were mad at each other :joyfull: It also made for some paparazzi style pictures :)
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It was finally time for our last FP...the Character Spot! Only, when we walked up the FP line was out the door and down the whole side! We decided to bail and changed to Figment instead :inlove:
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Next up: World Showcase!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
After Figment we headed over towards World Showcase
This tea pot was so cute!
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My Mom spotted a Photopass CM and asked if we could have a picture. He snapped a shot of her and said he took one as she asked :joyfull: It was so funny....here is the shot
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Real photo :)
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We stopped in France for a drink but the drink place wasn't open yet so we looked around a bit instead
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I was bummed we missed the actual Epcot Christmas festivities but at least we got to see the decorations. Next time we go to Disney around Christmas I think we will go the week after Thanksgiving so we can see all the Epcot stuff :)
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A couple Kindly offered to take our picture in the American Adventure :)
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More randomness
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Next up: More Epcot!
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
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My Mom clearly took this picture since I can see my head in the corner :joyfull:
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We were really trying to soak in the sun as much as we could since we knew we were coming back to major winter weather at home!
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We had lunch plans and decided to just check in early....where? Where else? Via Napoli!
We decided to share a salad and an individual pizza instead of overloading ourselves with a giant pizza like we usually do :joyfull:
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I accidentally ordered us the Margherita pizza instead of pepperoni and didn't realize it until like 10 minutes after I did it :p My Mom just assumed we were trying something new so didn't say anything :joyfull:
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Both the salad and the pizza were yummy!
After lunch...which for once we did not have to waddle away from because we didn't overeat :joyfull:... we headed to Germany for a snack.
My Mom got the caramel cupcake and I got the popcorn...yum!
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We had to take a usual Mexico picture!
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A Photopass picture!
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Next up: more Epcot somehow
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
My Mom wanted to do a little more shopping and I started to get a stomachache (my usual Disney occurrence) so I sat down while she shopped. It was good timing actually because I was able to get some of my work stuff done and by the time she got back I felt much better!
Mickey and Minnie are so cute!
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We weren't originally planning on it but in the end decided to just get in line and get PP pictures :)
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After our pictures we headed out and back to the hotel. Our room was ready and we found a fun towel and a note :)
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We got dressed and headed down to the pool. We thought maybe we would check out the Beach Pool for a change but it was closed...and a bit chaotic...so we headed back to the Courtyard Pool which we liked better anyway :joyfull:
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Next up: pool time
 

amjt660

Well-Known Member
I watched a good portion of that snow game (up here if Buffalo is playing they almost always broadcast them on TV) and I thought it would be cool if you were at the game

Two thumbs up from this Canuck for attending and staying at that game

You are an honorary Canadian in my book!!!
Your passport is in the mail.
Visit anytime of the year- you can handle it.

Max
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I watched a good portion of that snow game (up here if Buffalo is playing they almost always broadcast them on TV) and I thought it would be cool if you were at the game

Two thumbs up from this Canuck for attending and staying at that game

You are an honorary Canadian in my book!!!
Your passport is in the mail.
Visit anytime of the year- you can handle it.

Max

Oh wow thats high praise! I do appreciate it and I do only like 10 minutes from Canada so maybe that helps me handle the cold :joyfull:
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
Back in our home, the quiet pool, we decided to get our own drinks instead of waiting for the waitress.
My Mom got a Pina Colava (@blgauger)
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And I got the Blueberry Lemonade
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Views
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I love that when you are spending downtime at your resort it doesn't feel like you are even at Disney sometimes. It is such a nice break from the chaos! This particular pool made it feel like we were in a whole different part of Florida.
I then turned into a basic girl and made my Mom take this picture of me at the pool for my IG :hilarious:
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Anyway, after some nice down time we headed back to the room to get ready for the Christmas Party.
**Warning - a million pictures of just us ahead**
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Next up: more photos of ...us
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
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And why not take some photos with the Gingerbread House?
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I have zero memory of it but clearly someone offered to take a photo for us
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We headed up to the monorail after this and got stuck in the security line behind a guy who whipped his double wide stroller past security (which was FULL of junk) only to, obviously, be turned around while they searched the entire thing. It took 2 security people to make sure he didn't keep walking away before they were finished...it was ridiculous....and annoying for us since we were stuck behind it :joyfull:. The said stroller culprit was also very mad at security...wondering why they had to even check a stroller...and was mad that he just missed the monorail (that the rest of us behind him also just missed). Like, calm down sir...the monorail comes pretty darn frequently! Anyway, eventually we made it to the MK!
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Next up: more pictures of just us :)
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
Some entrance decor
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I really love the new entrances to the party! They feel less chaotic and I like how you can get your photos done with right away (and how you get a treat right away too!)
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Anyway we did indeed have a FP so headed over towards Dumbo
My Mom got the red card!
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Next up: more party
 

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